Avarene

Magistratum
The Magistratum - also known as the Order of Magisters - is an order of dedicated, professionally-trained practitioners of Magick, chartered by and operating throughout the lands of the Second Empire. Despite the loss of its Zaerrosa branch, the order has remained the largest and most prominent of the known arcane orders of the world.

Purpose
The Magistratum has numerous central functions. Its declared objectives include -


 * Maintaining a unified, independent, and neutral network of support for its membership.
 * Providing dedicated instruction in the Arcane Disciplines to aspiring wizards.
 * Ongoing acquisition, identification, and study of magical items.
 * Offering counsel to the leadership of the Empire - as well as provincial, prefectural, and municipal authorities - on arcane matters.
 * Identifying, pursuing, and containing rogue wizards.

Leadership
The Magistratum is led by a wizard known as the Grand Magister or Grand Magistra. This individual is responsible for leading the order, setting its agenda, regulating its laws and policies, and being it's foremost representative to the world at large. Violette Humilio, an Acci native of Eastgate, is the current Grand Magistra.

A gathering of nine master wizards, known as the Wizarding Council, supports and advises the Grand Magistra. They meet in the Star Chamber, on the second-highest level of the Spire. Members of the Council hold the title of Prime Magister or Prime Magistra.

Each individual branch of the Magistratum, found in every city and large town, is known as a Wizard's Hall. These halls exist to both support local wizards and to be a point of contact for locals who may need the Magistratum's assistance or services. Here, local members can come for assignments and information, support with research, and to plan expeditions or other efforts. They can also take on jobs where private citizens and businesses request the assistance of order members in situations that require arcane expertise. Each of these halls is led by a wizard who holds the title of Magister Depute or Magistra Depute.

Home
The Magistratum is headquartered in Cedelphia, capital of the Empire, in a complex known as the Arcane Spire.

History
Since the founding of the Second Empire, and its original chartering, magick across Eccavar has been studied and regulated by the organization, with branches known as Arcanums located in a major city of each of the four provinces of the Empire. When Zaerrosa seceded from the Empire and closed its borders, the Arcanum there was lost, and eventually formed into its own organization. With the end of the Great War and loss of the Zaerrosa Arcanum, the order reorganized and recommitted itself to the Empire's efforts. This gathering, which took place in 2015 AI, known as the Arcane Synod, lasted throughout the month of Apiris.

The Magistratum continues to preserve its control and and protection over the infrastructure that allows it to operate throughout the diminished Empire. While it has varied its style and approach somewhat from the original order to some extent, the bulk of its traditions and methods remain the same. The loss of Zaerrosa from the Imperial sphere was a serious blow, but the surviving Arcanums were able to successfully pool their resources to continue their work. The practical approach and neutral stance on Continental politics have both served to ensure the Magistratum's relative prosperity.

In modern time, the organization continues to provide its services to the leaders of the Empire and the provinces and prefectures where its members live and work. They offer counsel to their any who seek it, but exercise a strict political neutrality and remain outside of the intrigue and maneuvering common in the courts and council chambers of the Empire's member states. Members of the organization also provide basic educations to the children of noble and merchant families, teaching them subjects both regular and advanced. Such an education is considered ideal for those who lead people and nations.

Any man or woman who becomes a member of the Magistratum swears a sacred oath. This oath affirms their dedication to the proper instruction and preservation of the arcane arts, as well as their solemn pledge to wield their powers responsibly, and to carry themselves in a fashion that ensures the Magistratum continues to be seen in a positive light, to nobles and commoners alike. They likewise vow to respect and exercise the order's neutrality in political and military affairs.

Hierarchy
The Magistratum has the following hierarchy of rank, each reflecting the bearer's level of experience and proven power -


 * Master Wizard
 * Adept Wizard
 * Acolyte Wizard
 * Apprentice Wizard

Public
The Magistratum provides low tier enchantments, magical items, potions, and spell scrolls for sale to the public. The organization also assists with troublesome enchantments left behind on locations or objects bought or inherited by unknowing parties, investigates suspect magical activity in communities, and provides magical defense to said communities in time of distress or emergency.

Private
The Magistratum only offers its full range of enchantments, magical items, potions and spell scrolls to full members in good standing. Purchase of these services is separated into three tiers of progressively greater power, and purchasing specific tiers is restricted to specific ranks within the membership.

Timeline
The basic historical record of the World of Avarene.

"And he who lies in Our Name, shall choke on his own false tongue, and his poisonous words shall betray him." Vosani

The Beginning
For an untold eternity, there were only three places within all that was - Asenium, where the Presadi dwell; Vrucciaven, where the Luradi dwell; and the Primordial Infinite, which was an endless roiling discord of light and darkness, locked in unceasing conflict.

The Era of the Dawn

 * ??? - The Godswar - The Five Gods descend from Aesenium to bring order to the Primordial Infinite.  The forces of Anathema rise to oppose them, and a vast war is fought.  Immense cosmic beasts created by both sides wage this war on behalf of their masters, with untold numbers of them being slain on both sides.  Eventually, the Presadi beat back the forces of Anathema, forcing them to withdraw to Vrucciaven.


 * ??? - The Ordering of Creation - Victorious over Anathema, the Presadi continue with their intended design. They shape the Primordial Infinite into the Great Beyond, and form its myriad worlds from the bodies of the dead beasts left by both sides.  They separate Light from Darkness, and order the Elements.  The Five then assign the Precursors to visit these worlds and shape them.  Avarene is one such of these worlds.

The Era of the Ancients

 * 200,000 BI - Coming of the First Ones - The Vai Vosani appear on Avarene.
 * 150,000 BI - Departure of the Builders - The Precursors leave Avarene for parts unknown. The Vosani remain as the stewards of the world.
 * 55,000 BI
 * Vosani Diminish - The Vosani birthrate begins to diminish immensely.
 * Coming of the Middle Ones - The Vosa [[appear on Avarene.
 * 30,000 BI - Extinction of the Vai - The Vai are completely extinct by this year.

The Era of Change

 * 15,000 BI - Coming of Man - The Vana first appear on Avarene, and are enslaved by the Vosa against the original instructions of the Vai.
 * 11,975 - 11,000 BI - The Purity War - The three Vosa cultures wage a war of racial purity against one another. Largely ignored, Man is forgotten as the Vosa focus on one another.  The war ends with the extinction of the Vosa.
 * Man Freed - With the Vosa dead, Man is freed from centuries of slavery.
 * Rise of Man - Man begins to more widely explore and settle Avarene.
 * 10,500 BI - Man Settles
 * The Acci settle in what is now known as Aceodore.
 * The Kadi settle in what is now known as Kadamara.
 * The Sule settle in what is now known as Sulanna.
 * The Wida cross the Inner Sea to the Celestial Isles.
 * The Zama begin settling Zaerrosa.

The Era of Man

 * 0 AI - Founding of the Second Empire - The Second Empire is established in this year in the city of Cedelphia.  Maripius the Great is crowned the first  Emperor.
 * 404 AI - Discovery of the Zomorah - Imperial ships discover the long-abandoned Vai ship known as the Zomorah, adrift near the heart of the Inner Sea. Its surviving records speak of the  incredibly deep waters over which the vessel drifts.  The scout ships are attacked by the Leviathan shortly after, and only barely escape.  As they flee, the Zomorah is destroyed.  The surviving Vai records are studied, and the Precursor city of Ionorath is first heard of, sparking its ongoing legend.  The Abyssal remains the deepest known point in the world's seas.
 * 417 AI - Arginium Formed - The province of Arginium is formed in Aceodore from the combination of the two former territories of Aegerrea and Aexerion by order of Emperor Rexophon. The kings of those two lands are seized and executed.
 * 1000 AI - Year of the Silent Moons - The Manabreak afflicts Avarene in this year, the result of the Ioturona Conspiracy. Both Primus and Secundus disappear from the night sky.  Magick is greatly weakened, and nearly lost, and the Break lasts for nearly five months until the conspirators are exposed and savagely purged.
 * 1944 AI - The Eozor cult rises to prominence within Zaerrosa.
 * 1971 AI - The Zama close the border of Zaerrosa, refusing the Empire access.
 * 1980 AI - Raxlori III is crowned Emperor.
 * 1988 AI - Beginning of the Great War - The Zama launch a massive, brutal invasion of the rest of Eccavar under the influence of the Eozor cult. Emperor Raxlori III orders immediate reprisals.  The Imperial Navy strikes Zama ports and blockades their ships in their docks.  The Army deploys legions westward to the Zaerrosa border.
 * 1997 AI - Assassination of the Heir - Emperor Raxlori III's oldest son, Prince Liniir, is assassinated on the highway at the Kadamara-Sulanna border.
 * 2000 AI - Year of the Two Comets - The Pyrrhic victory of the Empire is offset by great losses.
 * Mara 2000 AI - Collapse of the Wellspring - In a last, desperate effort to defeat the Zama, elite Imperial troops infiltrate the Zama stronghold established in the fortress city of Jandomeer, in Rebrunon. During the ensuing battle, the mana well underneath the city, the Eternal Wellspring, collapses from intentional tampering.  The ruined Wellspring is renamed the Howling Well.
 * Apiris 2000 AI - Vulcarim Reignites - Mount Vulcarim, one of the two largest mountains on the continent and  Eccavar's only volcano, becomes active once again after being dormant for more than 50,000 years, as a result of the destruction of the Eternal Wellspring two weeks earlier.  Its eruption blankets the skies in the region in dark clouds and ash for three months, destroys Jandomeer and devastates Rebrunon.  The few invasion leaders who survived the destruction of the stronghold flee north into Ipanium.  Imperial forces pursue, and begin what will become a four-month siege of their fortress at Torin Tal Emor.
 * Septria 2000 AI - Battle of Torin Tal Emor - Torin Tal Emor is under siege for four months, Imperial forces led by Emperor Raxlori III having cornered the surviving Zama invasion leaders there. The leader of the entire Zama invasion, known as the War Master, is ultimately slain in battle.  Gravely wounded, Emperor Raxlori III dies shortly after, and with his heirs both dead, the Imperial Council is forced to pick up the pieces.
 * 2015 AI - Arcane Synod - Representatives of the surviving Arcanums of the Magistratum - Aceodore, Kadamara, and Sulanna - meet in the city of Silver Springs in northern Zanelon, to discuss the preservation of extant efforts to preserve, protect, and teach the responsible use of Magick. The Synod lasts one month and concludes with the order reorganized without its fourth Arcanum.
 * 2950 AI - Midlands War Begins - The Midlands War begins in mid-Mai when mercenary forces of the southern states of Sulanna - united as the Phosania Compact - invade northern Kadamara, spurred by aggressive new leadership, seeking to seize territory from the weakened northern Kadi states in Odomond and Zanelon. The Imperial Army responds.
 * 2953 AI - Midlands War Ends - The leaders of the Phosania Compact sue for peace in this year, after their supreme military commander is found dead from a slashed throat. Infighting among the remaining senior commanders, none willing to risk being set up for failure, causes the Compact's leaders to opt instead for peace.  The leadership of the Compact finds fault for the assassination among its own senior military officers. Several senior officers are exiled or put to death, accused of being part of an "elaborate conspiracy" to kill the supreme commander, that had stemmed from growing dissatisfaction with the progress of the war.  This schism of blame and finger-pointing leads to the dissolution of the Compact itself within the next year.
 * 2997 AI - Current year.
 * 3000 AI - Year of the Red Plague - A great plague will afflict Eccavar in this year.


 * Lakeland War
 * War of Silence
 * Dark River War
 * Oclurano Conflict
 * Unnivari Civil War
 * Iammachaeus

Hold

 * Sleossoron, Miobibis, Leclidalar, Aeppedore, Enneron, Saggiaspea, Wrevelon, Urelar, Ipanium, Iammeque, Ephorene, Aglidale, Preoverath, Minalon, Aexelan, Itola, Webuvion, Feasterene, Shiojianata, Opparos, Egedalar, Ioturona, Axiron, Achirion, Ehalan, Tiacharea, Ziokeasos, Miojitora, Ioreodell, Walomos, Phammalyn, Giphurene, Seojeorona, Ophonon, Flevumos, The Argent Empire, Eoppapia, Dechamar


 * The Paragon Chronicles, The Blessings Of Vygasis, The Epochs Of Colena, The Scrolls Of Husion, The Words Of Danus, of Wona, of Lirone, of Vetara, of Iulla, of Oros, of Amdos


 * Circle of Salt, Star Knights, League of the Rose, Order of the Banner


 * Triphuns, Rilando, Oritini

Five Divine Mountains
The Presadi are each associated with one of the five directions of space, represented by the Five Divine Mountains, which are the five highest and most famous mountains in all of Avarene. Each of these represents the point said to be representative of each of the Gods.

Mount Lang
Also known as the Great Mountain, it is associated with Auronor, the God of Law & Time. It is the single highest mountain in all the world, located in far eastern Privunon, near the Kadamara-Sulanna border. It is near the southwestern end of the Anels Mountains in Privunon. From its base to its pinnacle, Mount Lang rises 1.83 leagues (29,000 feet). It is rumored that the dragons of Avarene, which have not been seen since the Great War, live on the mountain's pinnacle, hidden from prying mortal eyes by the perpetual cloud cover that obscures the top of the mountain.

Mount Caravir
Also known as the Frozen Mountain, it is associated with Roon, the God of Hearth & Medicine. It is the second-highest mountain in the world, located in far northern Essenica, at the northern end of the Crosat Mountains.

Mount Hessef
Also known as the Verdant Mountain, it is associated with Lenvani, the God of Science & Craft. It is the third-highest mountain in the world, located on the Arginium-Beomarona border, near the center of the Gilet Mountains.

Mount Surum
Also known as the Storm Mountain, it is associated with Syr, the God of Agriculture & Commerce. It is the fifth-highest mountain in the world, located at the far southern end of the Sahat Mountains, near the extreme southern end of the Hons Peninsula, in southwestern Vamaver.

Mount Vulcarim
Also known as the Fire Mountain, it is associated with Vasando, the God of War & Protections. It is the fourth-highest mountain in the world, and the sole volcano of Avarene. It stands near the western end of the Prelept Mountains in central Rebrunon.

Time & Seasons
Almost every race of Man marks the passage of days, seasons, and years in some fashion. Across Eccavar, astrologers keep careful track of the historical record using the movements of the sun, moons, and stars. In the Celestial Isles, elaborate historical records note the events of the people following the lunar cycles.

Day & Night
Avarene's days are 24 hours long, divided into day and night, by the rising and setting sun. In the Midlands, the length of the night does not vary much with the season, and 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark is the rule year-round. In the north, the days are markedly longer in summertime and shorter in wintertime. Midwinter Day sees roughly eight hours of daylight, and Midsummer Day sees almost sixteen.

Five days comprise an Avarene week, also known as a fiveday. The individual days of the fiveday have no name, instead being referred to simply by their number - first day, second day, third day, and so on.

Hours of the Day
Timepieces are rare, commonly only owned by nobility, merchants and magick users, as well as the people who make them. Thus, the majority of the people of the world break up the day into ten segments - dawn, morning, noon, afternoon, dusk, sunset, evening, midnight, late night, and night's end. While various conventions for naming these periods exist throughout the world, they tend to be very localized, and can cause travelers no small confusion.

In cities, the tolling of bells at the local church tends to replace the more casual accounting of the passage of a day. The Church of Illumination keeps a careful track of time, and a combination of astrological monitoring and use of timepieces enable this timekeeping. The daytime twelve hours of the day are referred to as the "high hours", and the nighttime hours are referred to as the "low hours". Thus, nine in the morning would be "high nine", and seven at night would be "low seven". An in-between time, such as 9:22 in the morning, would be "twenty-two minutes past high nine" or 7:45 in the evening would be "a quarter to low eight".

The Calendar
The majority of the world follows a general calendar that has no real name, as the name of the person or persons responsible for its establishment have long been lost to history.

Each year of 365 days is divided into twelve months of 30 days each, with each month divided into six fivedays. The five remaining days fall at the end of the first, fourth, seventh, ninth and eleventh months. These five days mark major annual holidays, with the different cultures observing varying practices in their celebrations, but always noting either the seasons or their changing.

The twelve months of the calendar year are - Janura, Febrio, Mara, Apiris, Mai, Jenara, Jenora, Augria, Septria, Octra, Novundus, and Decema.

The five annual holidays are as follows -


 * Winterfest, which happens between Janura and Febrio. It marks the midpoint of the winter season, and is a time of family and friends.  Loved ones give one another small gifts, and special meals are prepared and entire families will gather for a day of fellowship.
 * Festival of Flowers, marking the official start of spring, is a day of peaceful rejoicing. People both noble and common alike acquire flowers grown by the clergy and herbalists just for the occasion.  People then wear these flowers in their hair or pinned to their clothes, cast them out in the streets, or set them in vases in their windows as a thanks to the Gods for the coming of another spring.
 * Midsummer, marking the midpoint of the summer season. It is a time of feasting and music-making, love and romance.  It is a time during which many passionate dalliances take place, as well as betrothals among those very much in love.
 * Harvestfire, which marks the midpoint of the autumn, is a time when people enjoy a feast to celebrate the end of the harvest season. Families and communities alike light great bonfires around which they gather to share in food and fellowship.
 * Day of the Stars, also known as the "clearest day of the year", is that day when the skies are clearest for stargazing and astrologers to study the movement of the celestial bodies of the Great Beyond. It is also a day when families remember and pay homage to their departed loved ones.

Lore
Avarene is a large world. Of the known lands, Eccavar is its single largest landmass. Thanks to diligent scribes, explorers and adventurers, the details and characteristics of much of the known world have been recorded.

To the majority of folk, climate is a matter of harsh basics - when the seasons come, how the growing season fares, and how severe the weather is the rest of the time. In general, the kingdoms of Avarene produce more than enough food to feed their people and the various beasts that roam the lands. But localized shortages and the perils of lack of water, blistering heat, and freezing keep folk from complacency.

Climate
The lands of Avarene encompass extremes from the frigid arctic to the steamy tropics. Few have conducted any real study of the continent's weather patterns, outside of clergy,  scholars, and  wizards. A farmer in the northlands of Sulanna knows only that winters are long and chilly, spring and fall too long and wet, and the too-short summers too hot. Perhaps the weather is better over the next hill.

Characteristics
Two chief characteristics describe a particular region's climate - its latitude and longitude and its precipitation. Of course, many local conditions can affect climate. High elevation, for example, has much of the same effect as high latitude, so snow-capped mountains are not unheard of even in the tropics.

Eccavar
The northern coasts of Eccavar are perennially frozen and frigid, while its eastern and western shores are more temperate thanks to the influences of warmer waters. The heartlands of the continent are mild, kept cooler by the influences of the mountains on the lands around them. The midlands are temperate. The southern shores of the continent are like their northern counterparts, and tend to be chilly.

Celestial Isles
The Isles are largely temperate, with some warmer weather on the southern shores of its southernmost islands. The heartlands of the largest island are slightly cooler thanks to a small grouping of high mountains, but this is the exception.

Flora & Fauna
The vegetation and wildlife of an area are governed first and foremost by its weather. Northern, cooler regions have evergreen forests, while midland regions and southern regions have more deciduous forests.

Trees & Shrubs

 * Brittleleaf - Easily recognized by the many-pointed, faintly gleaming red leaves, this plant's name is believed to have been more a joke than anything else. The plant will bend in stiff winds or under ice instead of breaking.  Brittleleaf typically grows close together in stands, with some plants reaching upwards of ten feet tall.
 * Greenhead,
 * Inkthorn - A unique and invasive plant, inkthorn is a blackish-gray root that grows in areas of low light and high humidity, and is native to the tropical forests of the Celestial Isles. It is prized by chemists for its use in a variety of potions.
 * Stripefoot

Government
The most common forms of government across Avarene are feudal monarchies, generally found across the majority of Eccavar and the Celestial Isles, and in some parts of Zaerrosa. Some states maintain plutocratic monarchies, which is common in nations which are dominated by trade. In either case, a hereditary lord, king, monarch or potentate holds the power to make laws, dispense justice, and manage foreign affairs. The powers of the monarch are checked to some degree by the feudal lords or merchant princes who owe him allegiance.

In most monarchies, the nobles and merchant princes are ruled largely by nothing more than their own consent. A monarch who pushes a willful noble too far may drive that noble into open revolt. Worse yet, the monarch may need to solicit the support or neutrality from other nobles of the realm as he goes about suppressing one of their peers. This support comes at a price, typically eroding royal authority further. Strong thrones are rare, but they do exist.

City & Country
A very basic division that separates people into two distinct groups - townsfolk and rural folk. The dividing line is blurry at times - a larger village or small town blends many of the characteristics of rural and urban life. The division is not exclusive. Even in the largest cities of Avarene, farmers and herders till crops and tend livestock within the shadow of the city walls.

In most lands, nine people live in the countryside for every one city dweller. Large cities require a great deal to sustain them, and most people are compelled to work the land in order to feed and tend their own needs. Thus, large cities are found in lands where access to waters and lands that can sustain them are ideal.

Rural Life
In painting a picture of the average resident, an observer discovers that the most ordinary, unremarkable, and widespread representative of Avarene's considerable diversity is the simple farmer. He lives in a small house, typically built of stone, wood, or a combination of the two, with a thatched roof. He raises staple crops such as wheat, barley, rye, corn, or potatoes on a half dozen acres or so.

In some lands the common farmer is a peasant or a serf, denied the protection of law and considered the property of whichever lord holds the land he lives on. Across Eccavar, commoners are free if somewhat poor, protected from rapacious local lords by the law of the land, and allowed to choose whatever trade or vocation they have a talent for in order to feed their family and raise their children.

The common farmer's home is typically within a league of a small village, where they can trade grain, vegetables, fruit, meat, milk, and eggs for locally manufactured items such as spun cloth, tools, and worked leather. Some years are lean, but the heartlands of Eccavar as well as the lands of Celestial tend to be rich and pleasant, rarely knowing famine or drought.

A local lord guards the common farmer from bandits, brigands, and monsters. He is a minor noble whose keep or fortified manor house watches over their home village and several others around it. This noble appoints a village constable to keep order and will house some of his own guards - or perhaps royal soldiers - in the village to help defend against unexpected attack. Within a day's ride, a more powerful noble whose lands include one or two dozen villages like the typical commoner's has a small castle manned by several dozen soldiers. In more dangerous areas, defenses are much sturdier and highly trained soldiers are more numerous.

City Life
Typical townsfolk or city-dwellers are skilled craftsmen of some kind. Large cities are home to numbers of unskilled laborers and small merchants or shopkeepers, but the majority of city-dwellers typically work with their hands to make finished goods from raw materials. Smiths, leatherworkers, potters, brewers, weavers, woodcarvers, and all other kinds of artisans and traders working in their homes make up a fair portion of the industry of Avarene.

In most cities, the average city-dweller lives in a stone house, shingled with wooden shakes or slate, and sits shoulder-to-shoulder with its neighbors in sprawling blocks through which numerous narrow streets and alleyways cut. In small or prosperous towns, the city-dweller's home might include a small plot of land suitable for a garden. Many relations, boarders, or whole families will share this crowded block. If he isn't married, he might live as a boarder with others.

In some cities, he may be required to join great guilds of craftsmen with similar skills. In others, agents of the city authorities may closely monitor his activities and movements, enforcing exacting laws of conduct and travel. In most cases, he is free to pack up and leave or change trades whenever he likes.

He purchases food from the city's markets, which sometimes means he is limited to whatever fits within his budget. A prosperous man can work hard and comfortably feed his family, but in lean times the poorer laborers must make do with simple bread and thin soup for weeks on end. Every city maintains its food supply through a ring of outlying villages and farms to supply it with food on a daily basis. Most also possess great granaries against times of need, and many provisioners and grocers specialize in stocking non-perishable foodstuffs during those time of year when fresh food isn't as readily available, typically due to weather conditions.

A city of any size is typically protected by a wall, patrolled by the watch, garrisoned by a small army of the soldiers of the land. Rampaging monsters or bandits are not a typical trouble of the average city-dweller, but every day he will rub elbows with rogues, thieves and cutthroats. Even the most thoroughly policed cities have neighborhoods where anyone with a whit of common sense do not go.

Wealth & Privilege
Just as nine out of ten people live in small villages and towns in the countryside, roughly forty-eight of every fifty people are of common birth and ordinary means. They rarely accumulate any great amount of wealth - a prosperous innkeeper or skilled artisan will have access to a few thousand gold pieces every year, but most common farmers and traders will usually see no more than two to three hundred gold pieces annually.

In many lands, common-born people are bound by law to defer to their betters, the lords and ladies of the nobility. Even if the law does not require outright deference, it is usually a good idea. Nobles enjoy many protections under the law and in some cases can escape punishment for assault or provocation.

The typical noble is a rural baronet whose lands span only a few miles, ruling over a few hundred common folk in the name of the monarch. He collects taxes from the villages and farms and is vastly more wealthy than all but the most prosperous entrepreneurs in his lands. With his wealth and power come certain responsibilities, of course. He is answerable to his own feudal masters for maintaining law and good order of his lands. He can be called upon to provide soldiers and arms for the causes of his lords. And, most important, most nobles feel some obligation to protect the people in their charge against the depredations of of monsters and banditry. To this end, most nobles frequently deal with companies of adventurers, retaining their services to clear out troublesome monsters and hunt down desperate outlaws.

Common Folk
The vast majority of the people of Avarene fall into this category, which consists of the average townsfolk, villagers, and farmers. Minor craftsmen and unskilled laborers are also a part of this group.

Merchants
Filling the gap between commoners and nobility are the merchants and traders, whose enterprises ensure the flow of goods and services throughout the land. They may hold no titles or particular status, but their wealth and influence ensures them a distinct and separate station in society from common folk.

Low Nobility
Those considered "low nobility" are such as earls, countesses, barons, and baronets. They typically serve to administer the lands of a given nation in the name of the monarch or other high noble who rules the state in its entirety, and it is to those higher authorities that these families swear allegiance and service.

High Nobility
The term "high nobility" applies to a very select group - kings and queens, their heirs and other immediate family, and those men and women who hold certain rare titles of aristocracy, such as archduke and duke.

Learning
12,500 infantrymen. 1,800 cavalry. 2,000 support personnel. One million bushels of wheat. Half a million bushels each of barley, oats, and rye. 20,000 head of cattle. 50,000 sheep.

Disciplines of Magick
Throughout the history of Avarene, the Magick of the land has been separated into several disciplines of arcane powers, each of which concerns certain types of magical powers and each having their own unique methods, training and techniques. Each of these disciplines have their separate influences on the practices of Magick.

Alteration (Gray)

 * Fortification - Magick that deals with enhancing the natural attributes or skills of a person or group.
 * Transmutation - Magick that manipulates the substance of a target to desired results.

Elemental (Blue)

 * Air - Magick that manipulates the air and wind.
 * Earth - Magick that manipulates the earth and stone.
 * Fire - Magick that manipulates fire and heat.
 * Water - Magick that manipulates water and ice.

Evocation (Green)

 * Force - Magick that manipulates & directs pure energy.
 * Illusion - Magick that manipulates mental perceptions.

Invocation (Red)

 * Clairvoyance - Magick that influences & controls mental perceptions.
 * Divination - Magick that uses mystical means to gather information, foresee events.
 * Summoning - Magick that concerns the calling of creatures of varying power.

Preservation (White)

 * Healing - Magick that uses arcane energy to manipulate the natural processes of living organisms to mitigate pain and repair injury.
 * Warding - Magick that uses arcane energy to provide protection against both magical and physical attacks.

Alchemy
While not exclusive to a specific discipline of practical magick, alchemy is an additional arcane art which focuses on the use of a wide variety of natural ingredients, combined with various enchantments, to produce consumable mixtures that can help, hurt or provide a wide range of enhancements.

Chronomancy
More commonly known as Time Magick, chronomancy is a collection of spells and powers designed to manipulate and/or interfere with the flow of time. Because of its potential to damage the past or to unduly influence the future, this magick is not taught.

Demonology
Otherwise known as Demonic Magick, this collection of powers is designed to access the demonic plane, allowing the calling of sinister otherworldly entities and demons. This type of magic is considered extremely controversial and is largely shunned.

Necromancy
Also known as Death Magick, these powers influence and manipulate death. They can be used to drain life energy from a target, raise a body from death to a semblance of life and manipulate the spirits of those near death. This form of magic is considered a blasphemy against the laws of the natural cycle of life, and those who study it do so in secret to avoid persecution.

Magick
Magick is the formal name for the powerful abilities given to those who can naturally sense the energies of the Ambience and can manipulate those energies for a variety of purposes. These energies, when channeled in specific ways, are wielded within the strictures of one of the Five Disciplines. Those capable of wielding Magick - known as "having the Gift" - are born, and cannot be "made".

Those who can sense and wield the Ambience, regardless of skill or training, are known generally as "spellwise". Those who are self-taught and lack the formal training or guidance of a guild or proper master are known as "arcanists", or more derisively as "hedge wizards". Those who are trained and educated formally earn the right to be known as "wizards". Those who cannot sense or wield the Ambience are known to wielders as "mundanes".

Confluences of magick energies around the world, the usage of spells and enchanted items, and the natural "power signature" of those folk capable of wielding magic, and those items imbued with it, all create natural ripples in the Ambience which are known as that person, object, or action's "resonance".

The arts of practicing Magick are known as "spellcraft" or simply as "the Craft". Across Avarene, several organizations - typically very secretive and hidden from public view - exist for the purpose of providing instruction and training on magick and its use.

Myths & Legends
Across Avarene, there are many famous (and infamous) legends and myths which are tied to a variety of people, places, and events.

Ghosts of the Bell
A great church was established on a small island in southwestern Lake Aradem in northern Apparona around a century prior to the founding of the Second Empire, known simply as the Chapel on the Lake. For centuries, it was a hub of faith in the area, until its destruction by an unknown event in 1497 AI. The church bell tower collapsed and fell into the lake, its elaborate bell sinking into the deep waters. Now known as the Drowning Bell, on the two nights a month when Primus and Secundus are in fullness, it is said settlements on every shore of the lake can hear the bell ringing. Boats avoid that area of the lake, as it is said the ghosts of some of those who lived at and tended the now-ruined church still dwell in the cold waters, waiting to drag unsuspecting travelers to their deaths.

Will-o'-the-Wisp
Strange, ghostly, moving lights have been intermittently sighted in the Graywood of eastern Fillivar for centuries, which are believed to be will-o'-the-wisps. Travelers in the area are cautioned to avoid such strange lights, but occasionally foresters will find people dead off the main roads skirting the woods, felled by unknown means. These are attributed to folk being attracted to the mysterious lights and lured to their death.

Blue Men
Off the northeastern shores of Ohurion is the island known as Luu. It is the site of the ruins of an ancient Vosa city known as Eoxenara, which was believed to have been one of their first settlements. It is said that the city underground was the site of cruel experiments done by that ancient race on early Man. When the Vosa went extinct, the abandoned city was left to the elements, and outlying parts of it have crumbled and collapsed into the sea in the intervening millennia. The remnants of those subjected to those experiments, said to have had pale white eyes and deep blue skin, are said to be living to this day in the ruined city, abandoned by their tormentors and forgotten. The Wida call these mysterious remnants the "blue-gray men", and avoid the city and the island, because the legend claims the Blue Men will fall upon unwary ships and use the crews as sacrifices to their pagan gods.

Characters
Certain symbols may appear beside each character name. Their meanings are -


 * ∆ - central character
 * ◊ - character is member of central character's party
 * ○ - character is a major non-party figure
 * † - character is deceased as of the start of the story